Bound To The Moon Priestess Chapter 06

Bound To The Moon Priestess Chapter 06

I zoned uut for a minute, then shook my head.

My mom used to treat me and my sister the same. She never used to hit me.

But after so many years of the lie, she and Dad almost forgot I was a girl too.

One time, I fought Isara over a piece of cake.

Isara cried.

Mom slapped me right across the face. “Caelum, you disappoint me so much. You’re a boy! You’re supposed to let your sister have it and protect her!”

Right after she hit me, she and Dad both froze.

That night, Mom snuck into my room, apologized quiet, cried as she put ointment on my cheek. “I’m sorry, Caelum. Mommy forgot you’re a girl…”

She promised she’d never hit me again.

And she kept that promise.

Until last night, when she slapped me for the second time. And there wasn’t a single drop of guilt on her face, and she never said that I’m sorry.

I stopped thinking about them.

By morning, my small cuts had already healed.

I washed up quick, and I was changing when a voice came from behind the door.

“Caelum?”

Leoric called my name, held out a towel. He pushed the door open, and then realized what he’d walked in on. The tip of his ear turned bright red, he slammed his eyes shut and backed out quick.

“Uh… sorry! I forgot you’re a girl…”

I was a little embarrassed too. After all these years, he was the first person to ever figure out who I really

was.

“It’s fine.”

I took the towel and wiped my face. It had rained last night, and the sky outside was bright and clear. I breathed deep, savoring the rare taste of free air.

After that, I had to put the clean Sun Priest robe back on and head to the temple to do my duties.

Leoric was quiet for a minute, then said, “I’ll walk you.”

It felt so weird. For my whole life, I’d walked that path to the temple alone, sometimes even carrying the lunch Mom and Dad packed for Isara. This was the first time anyone had walked with me. I didn’t say yes, I didn’t say no. Leoric just followed quiet behind me.

When we hit the woods, I smelled mint, sage, lemongrass, rosemary. I couldn’t help turning back to tell

Leoric about all the plants,

“Lemon leaves are actually sweeter than the lemons themselves,” I said. “Next time you make a summer drink, throw one leaf in instead of a lemon slice-it tastes way better.”

“You’ve tried it?” Leoric asked.

“Yeah, I made a whole big pitcher once, and ended up having to throw most of it out,” I said, regretful.

“Next time you can save me a glass,” Leoric said. “I love trying weird, secret recipes no one’s heard of.”

I smiled at him, and my step felt a lot lighter.

Leoric blinked in surprise, then gave me a small smile back. Sunlight filtered through his red hair, made him look all wild and warm at the same time.

I froze for a second, staring. I’d never noticed before, but Leoric was just like Roran-both Alphas, both total heartbreakers everyone in the woods talked about.

Before long, we got to the temple. Isara and Roran were standing right by the entrance.

Roran flicked a glance at me, like he had something to say, then looked away.

Isara ran toward me, excited.

“Caelum, why didn’t you come home last night?

“Quick, can you run this document to the pack council for me? It’s way too hot, I don’t wanna walk all that

way.”

Leoric frowned a little beside me, and reached out to take the envelope from Isara’s hand.

“Got it, I’ll do it. Caelum’s not feeling well. Let him go inside the temple and rest, it’s too hot out here.”

Isara blinked, surprised, and looked from me to Leoric.

“When did you two get so close? Wait, Caelum’s sick? Isn’t that kind of a wimpy thing to say?”

She got that little frown, that sour look. Silent Roran suddenly looked right at me.

“So this is the Ashward Sun Priest, huh? Won’t even do a small favor for his own sister?

“Then again, you’ve always been starved for attention. Makes sense you’d be jealous, doesn’t it?”

The words were sharp, mean, no sugarcoating. Leoric looked at him, shocked.

I knew why Roran was somad.

Last night he must’ve gone through our old letters, and the more he read, the worse he got.

He must’ve been thinking it would’ve been better if his pen pal-was Isara.

And there were all those soft, flirty lines in the letters. He definitely figured out I had a crush on him, and thought it was disgusting.

My chest ached for a second, but it was way better than last night.

Suddenly Leoric blew up. “Roran, take that back! Caelum had a fever last night, he spent all day in the hospital! Isara’s perfectly healthy, she can deliver the letter to the pack council by herself!”